Need a Combat Capable Skillmonkey

[Enochi]

We are having a New Year's Eve game and I have been chosen to be the Skill monkey of the Group however I would like to be able to also compete with the rest of the group in damage. This is our group so far.

Half-Orge Fighter with Greathammer
Goliath Druid
Elven Sorcerer

Can use any book except Psionics, however if Dragon and BoNS:ToB can be avoided its a plus. Trapfinding is also another Plus.

ECL 3
Starting Gold: 3000

Should also note we are using Pathfinder, 3.5, AND 3.0 books. So should have a HUGE variety of feats, ACF, and what not to use.

So please show me the POWER OF THE MIN/MAX SIDE of the GITP forums.

Quick Edit: PS. Homebrew can also be okayed by the DM if I get it to him prior to the game.

[Piggy Knowles]

Option 1: Factotum. With Iajutsu Focus they can put out pretty respectable damage, although their strength really lies in utility.

Option 2: Artificer. Trapfinding, and you can easily match what basically anybody else is putting out. 4 SP/level plus a high Int makes skills not a real issue.

Option 3: Wild shape ranger (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#ranger)/master of many forms, with the Trap Expert ACF from Dungeonscape (lose Track, gain trapfinding and add Disable Device to your skill list). Full BAB, 6 SP/level and trapfinding, plus you can wild shape into a cave troll and just smash your way through most problems.

I suspect that option 3 is the closest to what you're looking for, but that's a guess. Options 1 & 2 are more versatile overall, although all of these are fun choices.

[SilverLeaf167]

So do you want a full build or what?

As tradition dictates, I'll have to recommend a Factotum (Dungeonscape), plus I also love that class myself. It gives you literally EVERY skill as class skills, the ability to boost any skill with at least one rank and a bunch of class features that let you apply your Intelligence bonus to pretty much everything.

Play a Human, pimp out your Intelligence as much as possible and play a tripper. The class feature Brains Over Brawn lets you apply your Int modifier to trip attempts. Wield any reach weapon, preferably with a trip bonus. As for feats, take Combat Expertise and Improved Trip. After that you should just take Font of Inspiration (found online (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/frcc/20070606)) over and over again.

It's a solid tier 3, very useful outside of combat, powerful in combat and lots of fun to play. Probably won't overshadow the two casters in your party, but it's still as good as skillmonkeys get.

(I'm gonna get swordsage'd so hard on this)
EDIT: (Yup)

[Enochi]

Forgot to mention

Stats are 18,17,16,15,14,13

A full build would be nice in case it continues but as much pimpage that can be put into a level 3 character would be much appreciated.


Also as Wildshape was changed in Pathfinder the game would use the updated version which is not as good as the previous.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

You don't need to "compete with the rest of the group in damage" if everyone else is already going to be primarily dealing damage. Go with a Batman who can do pretty much anything you want him to:

Middle-age Illumian (Krau/anything) Beguiler 1/ Martial Wizard (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#wizard) 4/ Ultimate Magus 10/ Wizard PrCs 5 (Mindbender 1/ Incantatrix or Paragnostic Apostle or Divine Oracle 4).
Str 12, Dex 15, Con 16, Int 19, Wis 15, Cha 16

Two flaws (noncombatant, weak will), start with Able Learner, Versatile Spellcaster, any metamagic feat, and Practiced Spellcaster: Beguiler, plus Improved Initiative from Wizard 1. That will get 19/20 Wizard spellcasting and 8th level Beguiler spellcasting, and all the Beguiler class skills for its entire career. Detailed description below.
Illumian (Krau/anything), Beguiler 1/ Wizard 4/ Ultimate Magus 10/ (full casting PrCs) 5, with Practiced Spellcaster: Beguiler before 6th to put 10/10 UM casting toward Wizard. Get Able Learner, Versatile Spellcaster, and plenty of metamagic. I'd go specialist Conjurer with Enchantment and Evocation prohibited, get Abrupt Jaunt in PH2 and Augment Summoning instead of Scribe Scroll via the UA variant. Use Orb of energy spells for direct damage, but you should mostly focus on debuffing/disabling/dividing opponents and buffing the party.

Ultimate Magus in Complete Mage advances only one of your classes at its 1st, 4th, and 7th level. Specifically, it advances whichever class that has a lower caster level rather than spellcasting capability. If both classes have equal caster levels, then you get to pick which to advance. The above build can apply each of those levels' spellcasting increases to Wizard, so the only level of Wizard casting you lose is that one level of Beguiler.

The feat Practiced Spellcaster: Beguiler is crucial to that caster level trick, but it's not enough to put UM 7 toward Wizard. The Illumian race from Races of Destiny get special runewords, one of which is Krau which acts like Practiced Spellcaster but puts a +2 toward every class you have, still capped at your character level. That bumps your Wizard caster level to equal your character level, while increasing your Beguiler caster level by enough to make both equal when taking UM 7. Note that you can apply your own effects in the most beneficial order per the official FAQ, so you can apply all of the capped-at-character-level caster level bonuses first and then add on the Arcane Spell Power bonus from Ultimate Magus to increase your caster levels higher than your character level.

Illumians are Humanoid (Human), so they qualify for Human-only feats and prestige classes. The feat Able Learner in Races of Destiny makes it so you only have to spend one skill point for cross-class skill ranks, instead of the normal two skill points per rank. It must be taken at 1st level, and your max ranks in cross-class skills is still half of that of class skills. Note that if a skill was ever a class skill for you for even a single level (Beguiler 1), your max ranks in it are always that of a class skill. Able Learner basically makes it so that you get to use the Beguiler class skills for every level you take, in addition to whatever other class skills you get from other levels. Since your only really important stat is Intelligence, you should get plenty of skill points every level.

The feat Versatile Spellcaster in Races of the Dragon allows you to spend two spell slots of the same level to cast any spell you know of one level higher. That means you can spend two 1st level Beguiler spell slots to cast any 2nd level Wizard spell you've learned and put in your spellbook. That build can eventually cast 4th level Beguiler spells, which means you could spontaneously cast any Wizard spell you know of up to 5th level. Versatile, indeed! Also keep in mind that it will give you early access to the next higher level of the Beguiler spell list, so you'll have access to that entire list of up to 5th level as well. You should never find yourself in a situation that you don't have a spell to handle.

Note that with this build you'll need Practiced Spellcaster: Beguiler no later than 3rd level, and you'll need a metamagic feat before taking Ultimate Magus, so to squeeze in Able Learner and get Versatile Spellcaster before 6th you'll need to use flaws.

You should specialize in Conjuration with the Wizard levels, your prohibited schools won't affect your Beguiler spellcasting in any way. Enchantment and Evocation are the easiest prohibited schools, Beguiler gets most of the best enchantments already and Evocation is easy to replace. Conjuration has the best direct damage spells and the best crowd controls, along with tons of utility effects. There are alternate class features for specialist Wizards in PH2 that replace your familiar, the Conjuration ability is the best one since it can completely avoid attacks, bypass locked doors, and whatever else you can think of. There are also alternate class features in UA that replace Scribe Scroll listed here, the one for Conjuration gives you Augment Summoning for free. There's also this variant also from UA, which allows you to take Improved Initiative instead of Scribe Scroll, which would probably be the best choice for this character.

The last five levels of the build can be pretty much anything that advances your Wizard spellcasting for all five levels. You could put one level of Mindbender in there, since you can cast Charm Person via Beguiler despite Enchantment being prohibited to Wizard, and even pick up the feat Mindsight in Lords of Madness (p126). You could grab the fifth level of Wizard for another bonus feat, or even get one of the alternate class features from the Wizard section in Complete Champion such as a domain power or Spontaneous Divination. I'd probably finish it off with Paragnostic Apostle, also in Complete Champion, since it's so easy to qualify for and it gives so many useful abilities.

I hope this helped, it really is a complicated build but it's also extremely fun to play. Google-up some Batman wizard guides if you need tips on what spells to pick and when to cast what.

[Enochi]

Sorry forgot to mention Flaws and Traits not allowed. Also this is Pathfinder so no cross class skill as a plus though.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Sorry forgot to mention Flaws and Traits not allowed. Also this is Pathfinder so no cross class skill as a plus though.

If there's no cross-class skills, then you don't even need flaws at all, just drop Able Learner and move Versatile Spellcaster to 6th level and it works fine.

[Enochi]

Batman is great but he really isn't a Skill monkey. Also at 3rd level he isn't going to be as effective as he will be later. This will likely only last for a couple of levels at most so I'm looking for lower end optimization rather then Master of the universe at 20th.

[Wookie-ranger]

Cleric + Guidance of the Avatar (http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/sb/sb20010504a) :smallbiggrin:
Get a wand of it or a custom magic item.

except for that:
Artificer can be a good skill monkey.
Cloistered Cleric with the Kobold domain (i think).

[avr]

If ToB is out, seconding the artificer (Eberron, not 3rd party PF) suggestion. Skill monkeys can really use the little extra magic boost that infusions give.

The less obvious sources of trapfinding in PF by level 3 are a couple of ranger archetypes (trapper, urban), a sorcerer archetype (seeker), a bard archetype (archivist) and a wizard spell (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/a/aram-zey-s-focus). The archivist archetype is weak - it trades out inspire courage - & rangers have no reliable source of bonus damage. Sorcerers or wizards are a possibility.

The 3rd party PF class I like best for this is the scout (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/3rd-party-classes/tripod-machine/scout). Silencing strike lets you take out sentries or really inconvenience spellcasters, and they cover the skill area pretty well.

[Doc_Pippin]

At third level Factotum 3 is going to compete without any nasty tricks. Your stats lend you to doing whatever you want, period, ever.

Going Human
Str: 17+1
Dex: 14
Con: 16
Wis: 15
Int: 18
Cha: 13

Grab a great sword, a +1 to str item for 1000 and the Power attack feat
Swing... HARD
You can inspire Attack and Damage so you can do 2d6+13 damage with a +8 to hit.

Given that your Max HP should be 33 just reference the damage average damage out put would be 19-20 damage thats really good. Spend your other feats on Able learner (If you think the campaign may continue, so you can become the ultimate skill monkey Chameleon) or if its a one shot take font of inspiration

Take two flaws making feats look like

1: Power attack
H: FoI
Fl: FoI
Fl: FoI
3: FoI

You will end up with 13 Inspiration points per encounter. Thats the real bonus. Its not a daily thing its per encounter so thats 6 of those killer attacks and a save your butt +4 to AC just incase. Then with the next encounter you can do it again. Out of combat you can use your feats to boost your already impressive skills, just to have the IPs refill when combat hits.

Bonus Skill points if you trade on of the flaw FoI for Nymphs Kiss for more Cha skill boosts and +1 SP per level

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Strongheart Water Halfling (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/races/elementalRacialVariants.htm#racesOfWater), Cloistered Cleric worshiping an ideal instead of a specific deity, domains are Trickery and Kobold (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/we/20060420a) (rename it Trap if necessary). You get the Knowledge domain for free, but you can/should trade it out for Knowledge Devotion (CC).
Strongheart Halfling is from FRCS, you gain a bonus feat like Humans get and you lose the Halfling racial bonus to saving throws.

You can use a Masterwork Buckler or Light Shield without penalty despite nonproficiency. Get Extend Spell, Persistent Spell, and DMM: Persistent, and start with a Reliquary Holy Symbol (MIC) and a high enough Cha to Persist one spell. I'd pick either Ice Axe (SC) or Elation (BoED, whole party).

[limejuicepowder]

Since you're starting at a fairly low level and don't expect to play past 7th or so, I would recommend just picking a class and sticking with it. Looking at the make of your party, it's not going to be lacking for damage. My recommendation is straight beguiler, with a possible 1 level dip in to mindbender (then take the mindsight feat). Very strong skills, versatile spell list; the only thing the beguiler lacks is damage - which your party doesn't really need more of. Overall, I think this is going to bring the most to the table that the party needs (control and OOC options). Feats are up to you, though taking a look at a handbook is probably a good idea.

Still, if you feel the need to contribute to the numbers, factotum is the way to go. Tripping is pretty solid, though that takes a significant investment. If you're looking for a simpler and less risky build, take quick draw and iajutsu focus. Combined with the sneak attack of the factotum you will be able to make powerful, if situational, strikes. This also allows more fonts of inspiration.

Last option is bard. I'm partial to inspire courage - at level 3, you can get your IC up to +3 without items. This is very significant. Some will tell you to take dragonfire inspiration, but I don't usual find it worth it. Unless you're going to be commanding hordes of very weak allies, the attack bonus (used to power attack) is going to much more damaging. This also saves you two feats. The main feat to take with this is song of the heart (which I think is from ECS) and the 1st level spell Inspirational Boost (SpC).

[Juntao112]

Rogue1/Ranger2 gives you a lot of skill points, many skills, trapfinding, and TWF and Track as bonus feats.

[A_S]

How high level is the campaign likely to go? If you're going to hit high levels, a Beguiler build or a skill-gish would be fun, but if you're not going to get much past ECL 3, you'll never get to the point where builds like that pay off, and you'd probably be better off going straight Factotum.